Tarn-Gites: January and snow

Great artisanal bread from Le Pancossier eight minutes away

Another year started with my mates at a great New Year's eve supper, we drank champagne, red wine and finished with a wee dram. The food delicious, a squash soup, followed by pork loin with ceps in a garlic sauce, plenty of vegetables, a cheese course and super desert. I arrived home about 1:30am, sent the annual Happy New Years to friends around the world, then fell asleep. The next day was bright, warm so I took Lilou for a walk.

Walk to Bald Hill

Happy New Year 2023 from all at La Bastide.

Well records are made to be broken, however, unseasonably warm weather has affected much of the world. In France many of the lower ski resorts have no snow and are turning to mountain biking, walking or closing completely etc. The Pyrenees had some snow but most has melted. Bad news for me as I am off skiing in Austria towards the end of the month to Kaprun with my ski buddies, luckily the resort is quite high and they have some snow, I will take the kids to Baqueira, Spain in February, so I hope the Pyrenees has a big load of snow before then. Thank goodness it's getting colder with 25cm due in Austria

With 19 degree weather Christmas day and a very mild start to the year means hardly any heating and only a few log fires.

Tractor bonnet

This week I helped a friend cut the bucket off a tractor front end loader. This will be transported and will be installed to the re-built Fordson Power Major we sold last year. Darren (the new owner) will use it to help move wood, rocks and earth around his farm. Our Farmall cub tractor has a new cylinder head, gasket set from the USA and bonnet welded courtesy of Jean-Phillipe.

It is a quiet time of year with the gites rebuilt internally, I just have some basic maintenance to do and plenty of gardening especially hedges to be cut and trimmed before spring and the birds start to nest. I have winterized the pool and put away all the furniture. Plants have been moved inside against possible frosts. It's the middle of January and we had our first sprinkling of snow, during the night. It is getting colder and the higher resorts in the Alps have more snow forecast. In the UK there is the usual chaos due to snow and late gritting!

I have been making and freezing bangers and mash with onion gravy (a la Nigel Slater) and really enjoying the latest Hairy bikers outing on electric bikes "Go local." Fantastic ideas and very watchable with Si and Dave. You also get to see some fabulous British countryside. Bad news is that Dave is having chemo for cancer and looks likely that the Hairys will do less together.

This week I have the dentist, massage, vet (cat had a few stitches), and rheumatologist for my back . At the end of the month I will fly to Heathrow the day before a flight to Salzburg then holiday in Kaprun, Austria for a week. I will spend an evening with my sister and brother-in-law. Hopefully in a pub with a warm fire!

The website has been updated with the 2023 calendar, so bookings should start to happen anytime now. VRBO has been a real pain as they have changed their business model, I have been wrangling with the support department to migrate the 36 reviews across to the correct new entries (so far they have managed 4). I have uploaded photos, updated calendars and rates. We have our first enquiries and bookings have started. I await a call from VRBO to hopefully finalise the web offering.

Cottage interior

The cottage has been booked for five months since the start of December, which is fine as it's been mild, but with colder temperatures, the 14kw log burner will keep the guest very toasty. Logs have been an issue this year as fuel costs have risen everywhere, so a stere, (1m cubed) which used to cost 60 euros now costs anywhere from 69-135 euros. They are also in high demand due to the cost of oil.

Postscript: We now have our first bookings of the season.

Today is cloudy in the valley with some drizzle, the dog and I still got out for a short walk. I am on day eight of a 21 day yoga program which should help my back. So far no real change, still painful! Apéro tonight with the usual suspects, due to the weather we have replaced boule with poker. I have made sausage rolls to wash down with the beer and wine. Thursday I will go to the market in Aussillon near Mazamet then have lunch with friends, before helping to load the tractor bucket and pneumatic front end loader onto a large trailer. The lunch was a super Mont d'Or cheese cooked in the oven with garlic and white wine, eaten with fresh bread from the market a green salad, and washed down with a cracking red wine. The tractor parts were very heavy!

Just received the "Echos du Castellas" the latest addition of our village magazine. According to this we should get fibre WIFI services in the summer. I won't hold my breath as we were told this two years ago. However, the road to La Bastide has been marked with paint and sticks for poles to hold the fibre wire. The old brickworks "Des Briquetiers a Puycalvel" have been demolished to make way for four 1000sq M dwellings. It was the third brickworks in Puycalvel and the only one standing. It has not been used since the 1920s. The main kiln in the picture is still standing awaiting village consultation of its fate.